Paper Trail
by breakaway-republic
Summary: Nancy's days as an amnesiac may be over, but what are her reasons for seeking out Yomiko? Other parties may be interested in exploiting the abilities of The Paper and Miss Deep.
1. Flight of the Wayward Makuhari

_Requisite Disclaimer: I don't own Read or Die, and I doubt I ever will. It's not like this is keeping me up at night, but I don't want to get sued, either. Sony has some pretty deep pockets, man!_

  


_*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

  


_1:37 A.M. GMT. Coastal Devon County, Southwest England._

  


It was a clear, moonlit night with an occasional gentle breeze blowing in from the coast. From a distance, the sprawling facility that abutted the coast could have easily been mistaken for some sort of low-key holiday resort or spa. Aside from the fact that it was occupying some choice real estate, nothing really stood outabout the Royal Library Special Operations Division's medical facility. The grounds used to be a privately operated mental asylum for the well-heeled, but were discreetly acquired by Mr. Gentleman on behalf of the Library several years back when the asylum closed it's doors after years of mounting financial losses. Now it was where the Library's agents and operatives were sent to recuperate if they were injured in the line of duty. Depending on the severity of the injuries, an agent was either given physical therapy before being sent back out into the field or received their pension after signing a non-disclosure agreement with the Library. However, there was no protocol regarding injured double-agents.

  


Working as an orderly in this facility wasn't as exciting or glamorous as field work by some of the agents, but the Library preferred people with extensive backgrounds in medicine and physical therapy to staff the facility.This also meant that the meant that the facility was designed for physical rehabilitation, not incarceration. But the orderlies were informed of Joker's vaguely worded memo- "Keep a close watch on the amnesiac in facility".So during the graveyard shift, they would check on the dark-haired occupant of Room 21 every five minutes. Even when wide awake, the occupant seemed quite docile and easily confused. Given the occupant's conduct since arrival at the facility, the extra scrutiny Joker requested seemed unwarranted.The orderly on duty that night had no reason to assume that tonight would be any different. As a matter of routine_, _he shone the flashlight into Room 21, expecting to see theoccupant sleeping as usual. However, the bed was empty. He shone the flashlight around the room, thinking that perhaps the occupant was getting a drink of water or pacing around within the compact room. There was nobody in the room and no sign of the occupant. As he walked in, the orderly noticed something in a heap on the floor next to the wall. It was a paper nightgown, belonging to the occupant. He examined it briefly before running to a phone at the end of the hall. This was a direct line to the Library's headquarters, to be used only in emergencies.__

  


"This is Thursk! Get me Joker straightaway- Number 21 has escaped!"

  


_**Approx. 48 hours later- 3:12 P.M. JST . Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.**_

  


On the surface, Yomiko was rather pleased with some of her new purchases. Her nose was firmly buried in an 80 year old copy of Jaroslav Hasek's _The Good Soldier Svejk._ It even included some barely legible scrawling and doodles in the margins, thought to be made by Hasek himself. Nothing as sinister as a song to wipe out mankind- just the bemused scribbling and doodling of a Czech soldier from the Great War. This find had set her back quite a bit, but Yomiko figured she could survive on Ramen noodles from the 100 Yen store until the next payday. 

  


"Just the one book? Is everything all right, child?" the store's elderly clerk asked the bespectacled Yomiko as he rung up her purchase.

  


The Paper's reply was limited to a short "Mmm-Hmm." and a quick nod from behind the book. Had she looked up from her new purchase, she would've noticed the extremely disappointed expression on the clerk's face. Rare book sales wasn't exactly a high-volume business, but until a month ago, Yomiko was almost single-handedly paying for his upcoming holiday to Australia's Gold Coast. Now what few sales there were began to taper off, including from his best customer. This wasn't a good sign- or perhaps it was just the damned recession. There was only so many books that even the shop's best customer could buy. Still, the mousy young woman always seem to have her undivided attention focused on whatever book her nose was buried in. It was a small wonder she didn't step out in front of traffic or something unfortunate along those lines.

  


Wheeled suitcase in tow, Yomiko began making her way down the crowded streets back to her modest apartment. She tried her best not to think about Nancy. Even if she got her health back completely, she would be facing severe charges for her actions. But the more Yomiko tried to forget Nancy, the more she dwelled on her last visit with her. It left her feeling an odd mixture of sorrow and anger. After having been through so much already, it made her sad to think that Nancy would never know another day as a free person. Yomiko wasn't so soft that she completely forgot about Nancy's betrayal of her and the Library to the Ijin. But she in the end, she was the one who prevented Ikkyu's elaborately planned atrocity. The Paper was also angry that there were people out there like Ikkyu who were nothing more than self-aggrandizing murderers- wether he was willing to kill off his own lover or all of humanity. That sort of anger really didn't suit Yomiko.

  


But The Paper once again thought back to her only visit to Nancy at the Library's hospital facility on the coast. She remembered that look of unmatched joy and amazement on Nancy's face as she watched one of Yomiko's paper butterflies taking flight in the sunny afternoon sky. It was almost childlike in it's purity and sincerity. For just that one moment, the two of them didn't have to worry about amnesia, imprisonment, betrayal, the Ijin or anything else. Yomiko wanted that moment to last a lifetime. 

  


As she got to her modest apartment's front door, Yomiko had the feeling that something was amiss. She fumbled for the lock with one hand- the front door hadn't been tampered with. As she pulled a rigid razor-sharp 3X5 card out, she was beginning to think she was overreacting. But through her glasses, she caught a glimpse of somebody sitting in the only seat in her apartment that wasn't overflowing with books. Yomiko's new purchase slipped out of her hands fell to the floor as she got a good look at the uninvited visitor sitting in her apartment. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"Hi!" Nancy Makuhari pertly greeted the stunned Yomiko.

  


_A.N. Ummmm....so whaddaya think? Bet you didn't see that coming! This is my first non Outlaw Star fan-fic. _


	2. Between a Paper and a Hard Place

_Requisite disclaimer- Blah blah blah blah.__ I do not own Read or Die. This includes the characters Nancy Makuhari, Yomiko Readman, Joker, Wendy, Drake and Sonny Wong. I'll let you use process of elimination to figure out which ones are mine. _

_ 07:06 GMT- Briefing Room beneath Royal Library Headquarters, St. Pancras, __London__England._

Wendy, Drake and the others figured it had to be urgent if the Joker was calling for a briefing at this early hour. In addition to Joker's personal assistant and the Library's weapons expert were a number of behavioral and computer experts. Staring back at them was a file image of Nancy Makuhari; the double-agent also known as Miss Deep.

"As you may have heard, one of our operatives from the Ijin incident has escaped our custody the other night." Joker said. "Understandably, this particular agent's unique ability means that she can easily bypass any normal dragnet."

"So covering the train stations and airports won't turn up much." Drake observed.

"This came in from a security camera at Narita Airport a little over five hours ago." Joker announced as a familiar image was projected on the screen. The grainy picture showed a somewhat tall, dark-haired woman in sunglasses and a tan overcoat standing to the side of the line through customs at Tokyo's international airport. At first glance, it could've been Nancy- or it could've been one of several thousand relatively tall women with black hair in the airport at any given time. Except the others knew Joker wouldn't be giving this grainy surveillance camera photo such scrutiny for no apparent reason. The next image to appear before them indicated why.

Joker had brought up a close-up of the woman's right hand on screen. Nothing seemed really amiss until each of them caught a glimpse of the woman's fingers. Her index and middle finger appeared bent, but they were actually in the wall. It also appeared that there was a slight glow around the fingers as they went into the solid wall.

"That explains how she would circumvent Customs and the airline counter on both ends." Wendy observed.

"Do you think she's doing this on her own, or taking orders from any remaining Ijin?" Drake queried.

"Unknown at this time..." Joker said. "We're not certain how much of her memory she has, but even after the Ijin incident we know that she received one visitor." Yomiko's image appeared on the screen.

"If not Ijin, this could be the next logical choice."

It would be foolhardy to assume that the Ijin had been completely destroyed after their encounter with the British Library. After all, up until 2 nights ago, the Library had a living, breathing Ijin in their custody.

_3:38. JST, Apartment of Yomiko Readman, Shinjuku district, __Tokyo__Japan_

"Sorry to barge in unannounced like this, but I just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought I'd let myself in." Nancy said with a wry grin that was completely lost on the Paper. Yomiko's jaw was slack, her eyes still not quite able to believe what they were seeing.

"Hello?" Nancy asked. She had shed her brown overcoat and was wearing a white and blue polka-dot sundress that was last worn by the 15 year old daughter of the farmhouse that was about two miles down the road from the convalescent center. Given the faint aroma of mothballs, something told Nancy the garment wouldn't be sorely missed.

The way Nancy was backlit by the light filtering though the window in her otherwise dark apartment gave her an almost angelic appearance. For a moment- just a moment- Yomiko thought she was being paid a visit by Nancy's ghost.

"Are you OK?" she asked Yomiko.

_22:24 GMT__. British Royal Library Convalescence Facility, Coastal __Devon__County__Southwest England_

The redhead looked in on Nancy Makuhari's vacant room. Although nobody else could see it, a look of frustration and disappointment was clearly etched on her face. She had made the rounds in the facility earlier the evening, and no signs anywhere of the woman she was looking for.

_Where **is** she?_ The redhead pondered. _It's a little too late for dinner or physical therapy. Maybe she was moved... _

"You there!"

_But if that's the case, was she moved as a security precaution or maybe her health is deteriorating…?_

"Hey, you!" one of the orderlies snapped at the newcomer. "Stay away from there until the lads from Headquarters have a look! In the meantime, Mr. Joker says it's off limits."

"S-S-Sorry…" the redhead stuttered nervously as she backed away. "I'm a bit….new here". That was something of an understatement. Sandra McCoy's tenure at the Convalescent center started earlier that night when donned a custodian's jumpsuit stolen from the local launderette and a hastily forged laminated ID to gain entry to the facility. She was expecting much more scrutiny, but right now it seemed as though the staff had more important concerns than the infiltrator before them.

_.oO0Oo._

The guard at the front gate of the convalescent center barely noticed the hulking figure in the black coat until he had walked right up to the gate.

"Sir?" the guard asked, leaning out of the gatehouse. "If you have business here, I'm going to have to ask you to return during normal visiting hours."

For a moment, the ominous-looking man said nothing as the turned to look at the guard. Then a flurry of papers flew from one of the sleeves on his jacket and into his hand to form what looked like a white two meter-long broadsword. Bringing down the paper sword in one arc, Mr. Wong cut the Convalescent center's gatehouse in half, raining dust, plaster and papers down on the hapless guard. After a moment of shocked silence, the guard instinctively hit the alarm button on the console; only nothing happened, as Mr. Wong's strike severed the line. Upon realizing that, he fumbled for one of the two-way radios that was recharging on the console.

_.oO0Oo._

"This is the guardhouse! We have intruders on the premises, I repeat intruders….."

Sandra's heart jumped into her throat when she heard the orderlies radio crackle to life. Just her luck to be found out this quickly and…….

"….just breached the front gate! The attacker is a…" the voice on the two-way continued before being cut off by a metallic screech.

**_Thank God- _**_they're talking about someone else!_

Sandra let out a momentary sigh of relief. Except she had a feeling these intruders didn't sound like the kind of company anybody would be relieved to get in the middle of the night.

Her orders were strict. Infiltrate the convalescent center before locating and making contact with the woman who known as Nancy Makuhari. Sandra was to avoid any confrontation with the center's staff and simply retreat if discovered. As the redheaded infiltrator pondered what to do next, a thought hit her out of the blue. _Whoever it is must also be here for the Makuhari woman…_

Better yet, she immediately thought of a loophole in her immediate orders. She wasn't allowed to confront any of the British Library staff at the convalescent center, but nothing was said on confronting third parties. It was the reckless young redhead's opportunity to see who else was interested in the services of one Nancy Makuhari….at least who else aside from the Library of Congress Task Force.

_.oO0Oo._

_3:42 P.M.__ Shinjuku district, __Tokyo__Japan_

Although she couldn't follow the conversation in any great detail, the woman on the rooftop was watching the dialogue between Yomiko and Nancy as best she could through the binoculars. For the time being, the exchange appeared pretty one-sided.

Su Feng Lin lowered the binoculars.

_I can't make any sense of what they're saying_ she sighed, wondering if her inability to follow the Paper and Miss Deep's conversation could jeopardize her mission. Their very presence seemed almost too good to be true. Still, they had come so far and there was no point in turning back.

As she heard a pair of heavy footsteps approaching behind her, Ms. Lin turned her attention away from Yomiko's apartment. Standing before her was a Dokusensha strike force squad captain, his face obscured by full battle gear.

"Our men are in position, Ma'am. Your orders?" he asked.

"We might as well move in now that we have the both of them in the same location." Su Feng sighed, not really bothering to conceal her boredom. After a momentary silence, the petite woman growled another command ominously, hinting at dire consequences for her subordinates if her orders weren't carried out to the letter.

"**_Make sure_** you take both of them alive."

_.oO0Oo._

The black-clad juggernaut made his way down the corridor, his sizeable frame filling up a considerable portion of it. He was perhaps 20 feet from Sandra when one of the British Library's armed guards appeared from around a corner between the two of them and fired two shots from a pistol at him. From out of nowhere, a wall of paper appeared between the guard and the hulking intruder, stopping the bullets fired at him. Not sure what to make of this latest turn of events, the Convalescent Center's guard was caught by surprise when the wall of paper the intruder just willed into existence seemed to re-shape itself into a paper javelin and was suddenly run through his mid-section as he was flung aside like a rag doll.

Mr. Wong did this without even breaking stride. Although far from defenseless, Sandra was very much taken aback by the big man's display.

_A paper master…? _She had never seen one for herself before, only heard vague rumors about them.

Mr. Wong didn't even seem to notice the redhead as he continued his unhurried approach. With each footstep, Sandra bristled. In her mind's eye, it was too late to simply back down.

_.oO0Oo._

"Yoo-hoo…" Nancy waved. She was starting to worry about Yomiko's sustained silence, although she wasn't prepared for what happened next.

With speed atypical of an unassuming-looking bookworm, Yomiko suddenly ran to Nancy and threw her arms around the taller woman.

"Nancy-san! Thank goodness…" Yomiko cried out. "I was so worried that I'd never….." she trailed off as she cried.

"Shhh….it's OK." Nancy tried reassuring her.

Yomiko tried regaining her composure. "I-I'm sorry the place is such a mess…." She started to say as she gently pulled away from Nancy and adjusted her glasses. "It's just that I wasn't expecting any guests."

"I'm fine….really." Nancy started to say. "You don't have to-" the double-agent suddenly stopped; her eyes locked on the front door to Yomiko's apartment. Without saying a word, she roughly shoved Yomiko behind one of the many bookshelves. Not even two seconds later, an explosion rocked Yomiko's residence as the front door flew inward. Almost simultaneously, the window immediately behind Nancy shattered as something solid crashed through it and immediately began billowing a thick white smoke.

Through the increasing smoke, Nancy could detect the ominous-looking silhouettes of the Dokusensha Strike Force members entering the apartment.

_It can't be…_Nancy started to say to herself. Her train of thought was interrupted as she heard more broken glass falling behind her. Two more Dokusensha operatives in protective masks and battle gear were entering through the broken window. Slicing through the smoke, two moving shafts of red light managed to pinpoint Nancy, appearing as two luminescent red dots on her abdomen.

"Don't move!" the two men immediately behind her ordered. Nancy Makuhari was looking down the barrel of a submachinegun as she turned to face them.

"You!" the second man said- his weapon trained on something else behind Nancy. "Hands where I can see them!"

Nancy turned and saw Yomiko peering around one of the numerous bookshelves in her apartment.

"This is 7-3, ma'am. We've located the Paper master. The double-agent is with her." The second man said into a headset.

_Good! I'll be right there… _a distant, tinny voice over the headset could be heard replying.

"Don't move!" the first Dokusensha man warned Yomiko. The Paper didn't say a word. Instead, the bookshelf she was touching seemed to spring to life as papers flew off the shelf, forming a barrier between the two men and Nancy.

Instead of retreating, Nancy suddenly phased through Yomiko's paper wall, grabbing the barrel of the closest Dokusensha operative's weapon. Not sure what to make of this latest turn of events, the two men by the front door opened fire on her as she disappeared. The Paper's hastily constructed barrier collapsed as she dove for cover. A bullet from the strike force member guarding the front door passed harmlessly through Nancy Makuhari's leg before striking her opponent in the kneecap. As he cried out in pain and slumped to the ground, she managed to successfully wrench the weapon from his grasp. The stock of the weapon solidly connected with the face of the second Dokusensha man, and although his mask offered some degree of protection, he too collapsed to the ground.

The two men nearest the door leveled their weapons at Nancy and opened fire through the flurry of loose papers and dissipating smoke. Nancy Makuhari phased through the bookshelf only to bump into the Paper on the other side.

"What's going on?" the Paper asked. "Do you-" Nancy promptly cut her off, firmly pressing a finger against her lips. By the window, she could hear more footsteps on broken glass, which meant more men coming in through the window.

"Can you come up with another way out of here?" she asked Yomiko.

The Paper silently nodded, pulling her wheeled suitcase close. Almost as soon as she opened up the suitcase, a squall of white papers flew out above them and cut a hole in the ceiling. The papers then re-formed a straight rod with ladder-like rungs.

"Hang on!" Yomiko said, grabbing one of the rungs. As she followed her lead, the makeshift ladder shot straight up through the hole in the ceiling, taking the paper and Miss Deep with it and leaving the Dokusensha men down below to stare up through an open hole.

"This is 7-3! The double agent and paper master are on the move!"

_I have an idea where they're heading. Stand down for now _Su Feng Lin radioed back to her subordinates.

_.oO0Oo._

The smart thing to do would've been to immediately retreat. Yet Sandra McCoy was feeling unencumbered by common sense as Mr. Wong strode before her.

"Sorry….she's not in right now" she chirped, sounding more like a happy-go-lucky secretary than a government operative.

It was hard to tell behind those shades, but it appeared that Mr. Wong was regarding Sandra with a look of mild irritation or curiosity, almost the way a pedestrian would view a caterpillar making its way across the sidewalk before them.

The stray papers behind the big man began twitching as though they were coming to life. Immediately, Sandra clenched her hands together and closed her eyes.

Dozens of sheets of paper took to the air with the intent of slicing the redhead into pieces. Suddenly, what looked like a small spider web of flames appeared before her. Mr. Wong's projectiles turned to flame and ash upon contact with the impromptu barrier, falling harmlessly at Sandra's feet.

"Paper beats rock. Fire beats paper." She grinned mischievously.

Sonny Wong remained unimpressed. Instead, he had several sheets of paper coil together to form another lengthy broadsword, slicing through the walls as he brought it towards the cocky redhead. It was shorn in half upon making contact with her fiery safety net, the loose papers bursting into flame as they fell at her feet. As the papers were being consumed by flame, Sandra figured that would be as good a time as any to send them back towards her assailant. With a wave of her right arm, she sent the burning papers back to her assailant. Her vision was obscured as dozens of burning papers swarmed towards Mr. Wong in a conflagration.

One second, it appeared as though there were a hundred giant fireflies closing in on Mr. Wong. Then the giant's severed paper sword collapsed and reformed itself into a paper wall, blocking the corridor between himself and Sandra. For the time-being her fiery reach was halted by Mr. Wong's impromptu wall of paper, which were hardly even singed from the onslaught.

The attacker's paper barrier suddenly came apart and the individual papers that comprised it were once again being hurled towards Sandra at a lethal velocity. A few of them made it through the barrier brushing dangerously close past her, but the other projectiles simply disappeared in a thin curtain of fire she managed to set up in front of her.

_He's only probing…looking for a weak spot_ she realized. _Of course, he's assuming that I'll just go ahead and give myself away_ Sandra began to smirk. Only her train of thought was interrupted by a shrill ringing that seemed to surround her. Almost as if the very building she was standing in could read her mind, the Convalescent center's sprinkler system came to life. In a matter of seconds, both Sandra and Mr. Wong were soaked in water from above. The fire she had hurled at Sonny Wong had triggered the buildings fire alarm system and promptly extinguished the flames.

"Oh shit……" She gulped, a heavy knot forming in the pit of her stomach.

_.oO0Oo._

With a trusty 3X5 card at the ready, Yomiko cautiously peered around the corner before heading out onto the rooftop.

"Looks like the coast is clear..." Yomiko said as she lowered her guard.

Nancy almost reluctantly followed her onto the building's rooftop.

"Um….Nancy?" Yomiko asked. "Do you know those people? What do they want? Who are they?"

A pained look was on Nancy's face as she gauged Yomiko's question.

Her train of thought was interrupted as the Paper suddenly let out a small gasp and slapped at something on her neck. She pulled out what looked like a needle-sized dart.

"**_Those people_**….as you put it, are Dokusensha, whose reach should never be underestimated." A voice from above them chirped. The two of them looked above to see the secretive Chinese organization's young mind-control expert, Su Feng Lin, perched on a TV antenna.She gracefully leapt down, putting herself in front of Yomiko and Nancy. The two of them were could see that she was holding what appeared to be a small blowgun. The woman had an almost tangible air of arrogance to her.

"And what we want is you, Nancy Makuhari."

_Author's Notes: For what it's worth, it doesn't usually take 2½ years to update something on my part. However, when I started writing this fic I was blissfully unaware that there was an R.O.D. TV series in the works. Naturally, I wanted to see how the TV series progressed before continuing with the fic._

_For those of you who haven't seen the series, Dokusensha is a powerful Chinese secret society that has been at odds with the British Library for centuries. Without giving too much away, Dokusensha's contemporary incarnation is as a Hong Kong-based corporation, and they employ powerful agents as well._

_With that in mind, it would also stand to reason that the British and Chinese wouldn't be the only ones that had agents with powerful abilities at their disposal. Why not an American or Russian with some sort of unnatural abilities? Especially the Library of Congress, who you think would be eager to salvage or augment the rare books that were destroyed in the Ijin attack. _


End file.
